Technology innovator Akshay Chopra joins the Futurists to discuss his new book: “After Us: A Tale of Life Beyond Superintelligent AI.” In this work of speculative fiction, Chopra posits scenarios of a world dominated by a benevolent superintelligence. Topics include: the challenge of envisioning a positive outcome in a world organized by AI; the perils of AI-induced delusions; AI as an evolution of mankind, not a substitute for humanity; the Dataism philosophy and the Panspermia hypothesis; the appeal and relevance of magical realism; how AI denialism is a form of grief processing as we mourn the loss of our status as a species; the struggle to think exponentially instead of linearly; the threats that Akshay thinks we should be concerned about.

Independent AI researcher Mark Pesce returns to the Futurists with an update on the latest advances in open source artificial intelligence. Mark talks to co-hosts Brett King and Rob Tercek about a wide range of topics: small open-source models that run on the desktop and the smartphone; AI agents that work the “night shift”; NVIDIA’s pivot to open source AI; the disruptive threat to the leading US AI labs; the rapid rise of AI-enabled intrusions and the threat to the smartphone; personal AI filtering and assistants; AI agents to manage the smart home; faceless appliances as a precursor to liquid interfaces and the end of apps; fostering cognitive dependency and offloading cognitive work to companion apps; pacing the frontier; super intelligence; geopolitical rivalry.